This study focuses on the importance of integrating the transport infrastructure of Asia as an essential element in promoting greater economic integration within and between South and East Asia. The study focuses on the transport infrastructure of Bangladesh, North East India, Myanmar, Thailand and Yunnan Province of China. It examines the gaps in the transport network as well as the importance of improved facilitation of transport movements across national borders. The study reviews the broader issue of economic cooperation within Asia and the economic implications of integration of the transport infrastructure to this process. The study emphasises the catalytic effect of such an integrated transport infrastructure for opening up and stimulating the development of the underdeveloped regions of these countries. The study addresses the critical role of Bangladesh at the centre of a regional transport network and the developmental benefits to be derived by its people from exploiting the comparative advantage of Bangladesh’s strategic location linking South and South East Asia.The study should be of particular interest to policymakers at the national and regional level in South, South East Asia and China, to UN and multilateral institutions working in this region as well as to private entrepreneurs and scholars interested in development and economic cooperation in Asia.

Professor Rehman Sobhan is Chairman, Center for Policy Dialogue, Dhaka, Bangladesh. He served in the Dept. of Economics, Dhaka University, as Member, Bangladesh Planning Commission, Chairman, Research Director and Director General, BIDS, and as a Visiting Fellow, Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford. He was a member of the Advisory Council of the President of Bangladesh in charge of the Ministry of Planning and the Economic Relations Division.His publications include The Crisis of External Dependence: The Political Economy of Foreign Aid to Bangladesh; From Aid Dependence to Self-reliance: Development Options for Bangladesh; Planning and Public Action for Asian Women; Rethinking the Role of the State in Development: Asian Perspectives; Bangladesh: Problems of Governance; Agrarian Reform and Social Transformation, Aid Dependence and Donor Policy: The Case of Tanzania and Transforming Eastern South Asia.